Apr 20 - great timing

Usually when you hear "great timing", it's sarcastic. Today, however, I did have great timing.

Needing to do something about the lawn, I decided early to get out there with the weedwacker because it would be harder to do later when the day warmed up. I donned my jeans -- long pants needed for this job so that I wouldn't be covered in no-see-um bites, and got to it. By the time I was finished, I'd decided that I would only do this once. When we come back in June I'll buy a small electric lawn mower. There is not much to cut, but using a weedwacker is not the way to do it. First of all, it's hard on the back. Second of all, it's slow. Third of all -- this weedwacker is the original -- yes, the original Weedeater. It has a vastly underpowered corded electric motor that gets slowed down by the slightest threat of grass. At best our weed, sand and live-oak leaf yard has the occasional bit of thin grass. I bought this Weedeater shortly after we moved to our house on Glenburnie Road in Mississauga. It's older than Jeffrey ! It hasn't been used since Jeffrey was born ! Jeffrey turned 26 this year !

Ok, so that job done I got at the packing. I finished up, well mostly finished up, about 1/2 hour ago. That's about six hours of organizing, packing, fiddling, etc. It took the longest time to figure out how I was going to get two bikes into the car -- I ended up getting the two frames in there, one on top of the other with padding in-between, and the 4 wheels in the boat. Also in the boat is one of my bins from up north filled with bike stuff and other junk. Guess what -- as I took the spare bike parts destined for up north out of the box on the shelf -- guess what I found ?? -- yes, that bottom bracket that I was sure that I had. So ... when I get up north I'll pop the crankset off and replace the bottom bracket. What I should do is get a bearing removal tool and a bearing press. I have two spare bearings for these things and it seems that it's the drive side bearings that go anyway -- I could save some money by replacing bearings rather than the cups with the bearings. It's something like Sandy saving money using coupons at Bed Bath & Beyond -- you have to spend money to save money. That's always the way, it seems.

After I had everything packed, I got out the grease gun and cranked, cranked and cranked grease through the trailer wheel hubs. All the grease came out clean so I'm crossing my fingers that I'm in good shape for the trip. I also got out the compressor and pumped up the tires to the recommended 80 psi, and hooked up the trailer.

Just as I got the trailer hooked up and couple of drops of rain started and I rushed to get the grease off my hands so that I could bring in the clothes from the line -- Sandy is out -- and I made it in time.

Now it's pouring. That's what I mean by "great timing". I've got a few inside things to do but that's pretty well it.

Ready to roll ... almost.

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Sandy got back from her facial in Ormond Beach, having picked up my watch from the jewelers. I had noticed yesterday that there was some condensation on the inside of the crystal, likely from riding in the cold with the watch exposed. The jeweler said that when they replaced the battery on my watch it was right after we got all that rain (yes) and that the humid air in the watch would have caused the condensation with the cold on the watch face. I've noticed this type of thing before, so it's not just a story -- not skiing, because that's too cold and my mitts cover the watch, but out in the cold weather. It usually disappears before I have a chance to worry about it -- the moisture evaporating inside the watch, but this time it lasted for more than 24 hours so it was much to moist in there.

We just had dinner -- tuna, excellent as usual, with stir-fried veggies and white rice. Our last supper here for a while ... and we move on.

I forgot to mention that we went to the club (Smyrna Yacht Club) last night for dinner after Mass. We ate at the Tiki bar, having burgers and they were very good. Usually, these days, if I have a burger I'm too full -- not used to eating beef -- but this time it filled the bill nicely, I had a gap after very little solid food for two days.

That's it for now ... just waiting it out for our planned 6am departure. Sandy's always in a good mood after an early departure (not) but at least we're not leaving at 5am ... at least she doesn't have to be ready 1/2 hour before departure because I'm putting anti-freeze in the toilets ...

More later ...

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It's morning again and time to get organized. I'm not ready to leave ... well, physically I'm ready to leave but I'm not ready to head north, if you know what I mean. But ... it's all part of the show.

Onward ...